News & Blog by Ben Chandler
Read the latest news and bulletins, essays, features, opinions from our bestselling authors. Find out what's being said, debated, and discussed in the world of books and ideas.
A couple of days ago I started a Top Ten list of signs that you are an actual published author. Then I ran over my word limit. I considered cutting it down to a Top Five, but I was having too much fun. So, as promised, here are the Top Five signs you are an actual published author. 5. People (other than your mother) have read your book. 4. People stop asking (however briefly) when you’re going...
I will never forget the first real sentence I ever wrote as a writer. I was sixteen. I had finished school. I had deferred my university degree (Computer Science – ostensibly following in my father’s footsteps, though what I really wanted was to make video games). And I was bored. I’d read everything on my parents’ bookshelf, I’d beaten all of my games, I was getting sick of daytime television, and...
Marge Simpson once asked if you wrote a book would they tell you if it came out. I’ve already written this week about how unbelievable it is that my first novel has finally, actually been published. I still do a double-take when I see it on the shelf in a bookstore. To help come to grips with my descent into surrealism, I’ve decided to compile a Top Ten list of signs that you are an actual published...
Some writers will tell you a book begins with an idea. A concept. A memory. A random occurrence. In the realm of Speculative Fiction, they’ll tell you it all comes down to the big question: ‘What if?’ Part of the concept for Quillblade came from the questions: ‘What if there were spaceships that couldn't leave Earth?’ and ‘What if you put a bunch of different sorts of heroes from all over the world...
Well. Here we are. Quillblade has landed in stores! It’s still hard to believe, even though it’s getting less and less likely that my wonderful publisher Zoe W and her equally fantastic sidekick Sarah H (my editor), are going to jump out and yell ‘Surprise! It was all a joke!’ before pulling all of the ‘fake’ copies of Quillblade off the shelf and hurling them at me. I still have nightmares about...
